AUGUSTA — It was a mad dash to the finish at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Small and Medium Schools track and field championships Friday.
Originally scheduled to take place over the course of two days, with Small going Friday and Medium going Saturday, the potential for inclement weather over the weekend pushed the meets to run simultaneously, starting in the early afternoon and going well into the evening.
In the Small School meets, Maine Central Institute (138) held off Leavitt (136) for the girls title. Waterville (100) finished third. Leavitt (195,5) surged to the Small school boys title, beating out Winslow (136) and Lincoln Academy (91).
In the end, it was Cony that swept the Medium School titles, with the boys finishing with 137 points. Lawrence (123) and Morse (120) followed. The Cony girls (136) held off Camden Hills (101) and Morse (97).
In the end, it was Cony that swept the Medium School titles, with the boys finishing with 137 points. Lawrence (123) and Morse (120) followed. The Cony girls (136) held off Camden Hills (101) and Morse (97).
Big-time performances were aplenty at the Taylor Harmon Track.
In the Small School meet, Leavitt jumped ahead for both boys and girls. The Leavitt girls were strong in the field, with Serae Fish winning the high jump (4-10).
“We’re feeling really good, really hyped up,” Fish said. “We think we have a really good foundation for a good team. We all push ourselves to be our best and (work) our hardest.”
Carli Leavitt won the javelin (93-9) and discus (88-4) for the Hornets, while Emma Couturier won the triple jump (33-7.50).
Leavitt’s Molly Sirois wins the 1600 meter race walk in 9:26.70 during the KVAC small school meet Friday on Cony’s Taylor Harmon Track in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
The MCI girls pushed Leavitt and eventually pulled ahead. Emma Burr led the Huskies with wins in the 100 hurdles (16.70), 100 (13.32), 300 hurdles (49.04) and 200 (27.58).
“My (focus in races) was to just push hard and get angry,” Burr said. “I feel like (our team was) going to do good (Friday), get either first or second.”
Winslow won the girls 4×800 relay with the team of Mckayla Fortin, Noella Pepin, Vanessa Norris and Addison Pellerin (10:52.80). The Black Raiders also had a win in the 400 from Allie Kimball (1:04.00).
“It feels so good (to win),” Kimball said. “It’s really (an event) where you just got to go. The breeze was really nice, that headwind coming around that last 200 (meters) was not that good. But using it to your advantage really helps.”
Waterville’s Abby Williams, in her first season of outdoor track and field, won KVAC titles in the 800 (2:30.63) and 1,600 (5:29.37).
“I’ve felt really surprised by how well I’m doing,” said Williams, a standout in cross country during the fall. “Cross country is a long season, a lot of lengthy races. It’s a little tiring. For this, to change up, you change up your mileage, so that you’re resting a lot. I like it, I like it a lot.”
The Leavitt boys picked up wins in several events, most notably from Stephen Pierre, who nabbed wins in the 110 hurdles (16.84), 300 hurdles (43.69) and long jump (19-7).
Leavitt’s Degan Jordan, left, and Dayton Calder run a 100 meter dash heat during the KVAC meet Friday on Cony’s Taylor Harmon Track in Augusta. Calder won in 11.78 and Jordan second in 11.87. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
The Winslow boys dominated the 4×800 relay (Ryan Yang, Sam Schmitt, Braden Rioux and Joseph Richards at 8:50.01) and won the 400 with Levi Olin (52.45) and the high jump with Antoine Akoa (5-8).
The Cony boys and girls jumped out to early leads in the Medium meet. For the girls, the Rams picked up victories in the 1,600-meter run from Bri Harriman (5:50.05), who was also part of a winning 4×800 relay team (10:20.48). That team included Annabelle Orth, Grace Kirk and Loralie Grady.
“Overall, we’ve been doing really, really good,” Harriman said. “I feel like we’re not as focused as we were last year, because we lost (Anna Reny and Julia Reny). But right now, we understand that it’s grind time. So we’re all getting serious now and serious when the time is most important.”
Cony’s Kristen Kirk won the high jump (4-10) and triple jump (32-8.50), while finishing second in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles.
The Cony boys had strong outings in the field events. In his first season in track, Jonny Lettre took home a KVAC title in the javelin with a toss of 137-1.
“I was a little nervous,” Lettre said. “I had a huge (personal record) last week, PR’d by 24 feet. Then I didn’t throw very well today until my last throw. With my baseball background of 10 years and this being my first year (in track), throwing just kind of comes natural.”
Conor Morin, who had missed the previous two opportunities to compete in a KVAC outdoor championship — one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second to a broken wrist — made the most of his opportunity, winning the long jump event (20-7.75).
“It is so fun to be able to do it again,” said Morin, a junior. “I cannot express that enough.”
The Rams also got a win from Danny Phan in the pole vault (9-6) and from the 4×100 team of Phan, Eli Orth, Elijah Klaiber and Cohen Parker (45.90).
Gardiner made a clean sweep in the Medium racewalk events. Ashlyn Poulin once again left the competition far behind, finishing with a top time of 7:55.24, while teammate Abigail Fortin finished second (9:52.92). Jackson Boudreau dominated the boys race, with a time of 8:04.52. Nokomis’ Kurtis Gould (9:21.18) and Hunter Flagg (9:22.14) finished in second and third, respectively.
Lawrence’s Noah Lambert (11.86) edged Andrew Card of Morse (11.98) for the boys 100-meter title.
“It feels good (to win),” Lambert said. “This is my first year in track, so I’m just messing around… I’m tall, so I knew to just stride it out. My strategy was just to run fast.”
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